Chandra Shekhar Azad (Pandit ji) 

Chandrashekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in Bhabhra village as Chandra Shekhar Tiwari, in the princely-state of Alirajpur. His forefathers were from  Badarka village  of Unoa district . His mother, Jagrani Devi, was the third wife of Sitaram Tiwari, whose previous wives had died young. After the birth of their first son, Sukhdev, in Badarka, the family moved to Alirajpur State.

His mother wanted her son to be a great Sanskrit scholar and persuaded his father to send him to Kashi Vidyapeeth, Banaras, to study. In 1921, when the Non-Cooperation Movement was at its height, Chandra Shekhar, then a 15-year-old student, joined. As a result, he was arrested on 20 December. On being presented before the Parsi district magistrate Justice M. P. Khareghat a week later, he gave his name as "Azad" (The Free), his father's name as "Swatantrata" (Independence) and his residence as "Jail". The angered magistrate ordered him to be detained in jail for 23 weeks and ordered him to be punished with 15 lashes a day.